Last Night in Paris

Republicans are the Disfunctional Political Party

Republicans have had a lot of bad elections since Donald Trump took over the party. They lost the popular vote for president in 2016, they lost the House in 2018, they lost the presidency in 2020, and they lost the Senate in 2021.

Now to add to their incompetence they ousted their House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Most of the top Republican candidates running for president in 2024 reacted grimly to the ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy by a faction of hard-liners in their own party. One contender Vivek Ramaswamy, the loudmouth of the candidates, embraced the chaos and the front-runner, Ron DeSantis, notably did not denounce the move.

This is a Republican Party that has lost its mind.

They are so far away from Ronald Reagan that it is like the GOP today is not the real Republican Party.

The Democrats do not have to say or do a single thing. The Republicans have proven that they cannot govern.

And there is a lot on the table today. This past weekend, Congress passed, and President Biden signed, a short-term continuing resolution (CR) that continues to fund the federal government through November 17.

The CR does not provide funds for Ukraine and without that funding Russia will have won that war and likely be deciding which country to invade next. Those are all NATO nations and an attack on any of them draws the United States into war because we are part of NATO.

One thing we do know is that Republican Party behavior assures we will have a government totally controlled by the Democratic Party and that is a good thing.

It’s called Intimidation

Donald Trump was in the court room for his fraud trial in New York. He sneered and glared at New York Attorney General Letitia James as he passed her on his way out at lunchtime; she, by turn, left smiling.

That will be Trump’s likely method at all the trials he faces and of course his name calling.

“Asa Hutchinson, I call him Ada … the guy has zero, why would be on stage,” Trump said before insulting former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who he called “sloppy Chris Christie.”

“He’s like a deranged person, he suffers from Trump derangement syndrome,” Trump said.

He also called out former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, calling her “bird brain.”

And we all know that Trump calls Ron DeSantis Ron Desanctimonius.

Trump is 6′ 3″ and weighs 243 lbs. So he is a big man. Between his size and his behavior he is an intimidating person.

Happily Jack Smith, Special Counsel, has a career that spans multiple stints in the Justice Department and international courts, which until his appointment had allowed him to keep a relatively low profile in the oftentimes brassy legal industry.

Trump himself repeatedly denounced Smith in speeches and on social media, calling him “deranged” and a “psycho.”

I doubt Smith will be intimidated.

Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, an advocate for liberal priorities, dies at age 90

Dianne Feinstein October 14, 2020 questions Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barret

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, a centrist Democrat and champion of liberal causes who was elected to the Senate in 1992 and broke gender barriers throughout her long career in local and national politics, has died. She was 90.

Feinstein died on Thursday night at her home in Washington, D.C., her office said on Friday. Opening the Senate floor, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that “earlier this morning, we lost a giant in the Senate.”

“Dianne Feinstein was one of the most amazing people who ever graced the Senate, who ever graced the country,” Schumer said, his voice cracking. “As the nation mourns this tremendous loss, we know how many lives she impacted and how many glass ceilings she shattered along the way.”

Senator Feinstein has long advocated for commonsense laws to reduce gun violence. Most notably, she achieved passage of the landmark, federal Assault Weapons Ban in 1994 and has advocated for its reinstatement since it expired in 2004.

GOP Second Debate

This debate was a sad affair. Within minutes of starting, the moderators had lost control. The participants interrupted each other and that made them all appear to be arguing children.

The first part of the debate was all about illegal immigration at the southern border. All of them saw that as the leading issue for Americans. None of them offered a reasonable solution. In all of America’s history the illegal entry has not been curtailed. Most of those entering the country are running away from places that make their lives miserable. They have decided it is worth the gamble. The question not asked or answered is how can people be induced to stay in their home countries. That is a subject does not fit into a presidential debate.

Discussions about abortion and health care were limited with none of the debaters offering solutions.

Balancing the federal budget received attention with current and former governors pointing out that they had done it in their states. None told us how they would do it if they became president.

Skipped or given little attention was the war in Ukraine or Social Security and Medicare.

Attacks on Donald Trump were limited which I found surprising.

Vox.com wrote “The candidates who showed up at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California engaged in a largely vapid exchange of canned lines and talking points, repeatedly attempting to create “moments” that didn’t quite land.”

Watching a re-run of an old movie on TCM or the Hallmark Channel would at least be entertaining.

An El Niño winter is coming. Here’s what that could mean for the US

California is a likely victim of substantial rain. NOAA has provided this graph.

Three Questions Biden Should Ask Netanyahu at Wednesday’s Meeting

By Thomas L. Friedman

New York Times Opinion Columnist

This is the shortest column I’ve ever written — because it doesn’t take long to get things in focus:

President Biden, you are meeting Wednesday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, for the first time since he returned to office in December. He’s formed the most extreme government in Israel’s history and yet your administration is considering forging a complex partnership with his coalition and Saudi Arabia. There are enormous potential benefits and risks for the United States. I hope you won’t proceed without getting satisfactory answers from Netanyahu on three key questions — so we know just what Israel, and just which Bibi, we’re dealing with:

1. Prime Minister Netanyahu, your government’s coalition agreement is the first in Israel’s history to define the annexation of the West Bank as one of its goals — or, as it says, applying Israeli “sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.” But you earlier supported the Trump Middle East peace plan that proposed dividing the West Bank, with Israel controlling roughly 30 percent and the Palestinian state getting roughly 70 percent, albeit with tight security guarantees and no contiguity. Do you intend to annex the West Bank, or will you negotiate its future disposition with the Palestinians? Yes or no? We need to know. Because if you intend to annex, all your normalization agreements with Arab states will collapse, and we will not be able to defend you in the United Nations from charges of building an apartheid state.

2. Bibi, you told your first cabinet meeting last December that your top priorities include stopping Iran’s nuclear program, as well as expanding Israel’s growing relations with the Arab world. But we saw you decide instead to prioritize a judicial coup to strip the Israeli Supreme Court of its ability to hold your government accountable. That, in turn, distracted your military leadership, fractured your air force and elite fighting units, bitterly divided your society and weakened your diplomatic alliances from Washington to Europe. Iran, meanwhile, moved in with a diplomatic offensive, patching up its ties with all your Arab neighbors and eating your lunch. Why should we make confronting Iran’s nuclear program our priority when you haven’t?

3. Prime Minister, the Saudis are ready to do something hard — normalize relations with Israel. We are doing something hard to help facilitate that — forging a mutual defense treaty with Saudi Arabia. What hard things are you ready to do vis-à-vis the Palestinians to complete the deal? It feels to us that you don’t want to take any political risks — that you want everyone to do something hard except you.

Bibi, you’re out of focus for the American people. We need to know: Who are you now?

The Jewish High Holydays

As we are celebrating another Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, it is a good time to talk about the singularly most important play/musical about Judaism. Fiddler on the Roof.

No creative work by or about Jews has ever won the hearts and imaginations of Americans so thoroughly as the musical Fiddler on the Roof.

Everyone enjoys this show, whose musical numbers—“Tradition,” “Sunrise, Sunset,” “If I Were a Rich Man,” “To Life,” “Matchmaker,” and others—not only enliven Jewish weddings but are commonly understood to represent something essential about Jews and Jewishness. Jeremy Dauber opens his new biography of Sholem Aleichem with Fiddler because Fiddler is how the beloved Yiddish author is known—if he is known at all—to English readers. “Forget Sholem Aleichem,” writes Dauber, “there’s no talking about Yiddish, his language of art, without talking about Fiddler on the Roof. There’s no talking about Jews without talking about Fiddler.” And Dauber ends the book by tracing the stages through which Sholem Aleichem’s stories of Tevye the Dairyman and his daughters were transformed by successive translators and directors into what, by the time the movie version of Fiddler was released in 1971, the New Yorker’s normally severe critic Pauline Kael would call “the most powerful movie musical ever made.”

My grandfather was a dairyman in Ukraine too. He brought his family to America around the year 1905. That was the year fictional Tevye brought his family to America.